Fat Grafting

Fat Grafting - standard description

"As we grow older our face becomes more and more affected by the sun, gravity and the use of expression muscles (chewing, smiling, etc). Deep tissues lose the ability to maintain a young look and expression marks appear on our faces.

Fat grafting can help you fill the defects and regain younger appearance. It can be used to fill expression folds, sunken cheeks, scars and lips. This procedure is not aimed to treat deep defects, such as multiple grooves around the mouth of heavy smokers. It can be done as an isolated treatment or as a combination with laser, facelift and botox.

During the procedure the surgeon performs a liposuction from various body parts, such as thighs, tummy and buttocks, and then injects the fat into selected areas which need to be filled. After disinfection of the donor and recipient areas, they are being sedated using local anesthetics. Sedative drugs also can be used. In such case you may need an escort to avoid driving under influence. For liposuction the surgeon uses wide needle or canola. After a short treatment the fat is injected to the desired site. The recipient area is usually bandaged. In order to fill sunken cheeks over filling is often required, because of the absorption process with some of the fat injected. This can make your face appear over-swollen immediately after the operation.

If the area treated is extensive, it is advisable to restrain from activities after treatment. Although most patients can go back to their daily activities right away. There might be redness, swelling and small hemorrhages around both the donor and the recipient sites. The severity of such symptoms usually depends on the magnitude of the procedure. It is advisable to avoid sun exposure until the above disappear (after approximately 48 hours). There is no limitation to using make-up. The swelling can last for weeks, especially where the area is large.

Every operation has its risks. The fat being taken from the patient`s body should not cause allergic responses. There is a little chance of infection.

You must remember that the effect of the injection is only temporary. Due to their biological nature, the injected materials disassemble by the body. The duration of the effect depends on genetics, age, skin quality, life style and the area being filled. There are selected cases where the results lasted a year, however, in most cases half the effect disappears after 3-6 months."